The maternity benefit is a type of social insurance – sickness insurance, in which the insured person contributes to the social insurance system and in case the insured person meets the conditions for payment of maternity benefit, this benefit will be provided. Sickness insurance is a type of insurance intended for the case of income reduction or income loss and for ensuring income in case of temporary incapacity to work, pregnancy or maternity.

The conditions for arising of the entitlement to maternity benefit are identical for all applicants for benefit, regardless of their nationality and type of residence.

Conditions for arising of the entitlement to maternity benefit:

residence on the territory of the Slovak Republic

pregnancy or care for new-born child or taking of the child into care and caring for the child ( e.g. father of the child in case of mother’s death or father of the child following an agreement with child’s mother or wife of child’s father in case of mother’s death – so called other insured person)

sickness insurance in Social Insurance Agency – contribution to the social insurance system either as a compulsorily sickness insured person which is in principle nearly every employee and sole trader whose income in the past calendar year exceeded the amount equal to twelve times the minimal basis of assessment (in 2018 this amount was set to 5724 EUR, i.e. 12 times minimal basis of assessment 477 EUR) or as a voluntarily insured person, based on subscribing of a foreigner older than 16 years of age with permanent or temporary residence in the Slovak Republic to the voluntary sickness insurance scheme. At the same time the person needs to be voluntarily pension insured without being granted old-age pension or disability pension or on the basis of sole trader with permanent or temporary residence in the Slovak Republic subscribing to the voluntary insurance, if at the same time the person is pension insured. The condition for being sickness insured is considered met even in case the applicant finds himself in the 8 months long protection period following the expiry of sickens insurance in case the sickness insurance expired during pregnancy.

The insurance period – must be at least 270 daysduring the past two years before the child’s delivery / taking of the child into care

The period of taking parental leave is also counted against the insured period.

The period of entitlement to maternity benefit payments:

In case of mother of the child:

34 weeks or

37 weeks – if she is alone or

43 weeks – if she gave birth to two or more children at the same time and she is taking care of at least two of them.

In case of other insured person (see above):

28 weeks – from the date of taking the child into care or

31 weeks – if he/she is alone, or

37 weeks - if he/she took into care two or more children at the same time and he/ she is taking care of at least two of them.

The entitlement to benefit in case of other insured person is maximum until 3 years of child’s age.

The benefit is paid from the date of arising of the entitlement.

In case of child’s mother:

6 weeks before expected date of delivery or

No sooner than 8 weeks before expected date of delivery or

From the date of delivery, in case of preterm birth.

In case of other insured person:

From the moment of taking the child into care

The maternity benefit is paid for the duration of 34 (or 37 or 43) weeks starting from the date when the entitlement to benefit arises and even in case when payments lasted less than six weeks before the expected date of delivery or when the payments were not carried out because the delivery took place sooner than specified by the doctor. In case the maternity benefit was being paid during less than six weeks before the expected date of delivery for other reason than because of the delivery taking place earlier than specified by the doctor, the benefits will be paid only until the end of 28 (or 31 or 37) weeks period starting from the date of delivery.

The amount of maternity benefit:

75 % of the daily basis for assessment (or probable basis for assessment).

The amount of maternity benefit is calculated by the Social Insurance Agency based on a rather complicated computation. In principle the monthly amount of maternity benefit corresponds to approximately 75 % of wage, or 75% of the amount from which the insured person contributed to the sickness insurance system.

Claiming of the entitlement:

You can claim the maternity benefit by submitting an official form, issued by the doctor or by the branch of the Social Insurance Agency at the branch of Social Insurance Agency according to your place of residence. In case you are employed the application form must also be certified by your employer.

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